This week's news
40 years after it first opened, Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber is holding public auditions for a performer to play the lead role in Jesus Christ Superstar. Unlike previous auditions for his other musicals, these are on ITV – and so with added X-Factor-style razzmatazz. They are leading up to an ‘arena tour’ with Mel C., Tim Minchin and Chris Moyles playing the other leads. It has been interesting hearing various celebrities using the name ‘Jesus’ and it not being an exclamation.
It is cinema blockbuster season with The Amazing Spider-Man having opened a couple of weeks ago and The Dark Knight Rises coming this weekend. These films have several things in common: they both star British-born actors – TDKR has a number of British actors in leading roles; they are both derived from comic-books; and they are both part of a wave of films that have sought to look behind the superhero’s mask and subvert the genre.
David Beckham has revealed that he will not be lighting the Olympic flame as he believes that this should be an honour performed by an Olympian. There was a strong possibility that Beckham would be an Olympian, in that he was widely tipped to captain the GB football team, but Stewart Pearce, the team’s manager, decided against selecting him as one of three over-age players.
Reflection
Selina Kyle, one of the characters in The Dark Knight Rises says at one point, ‘There’s a storm coming’. This may be what Mark was trying to indicate in last week’s passage. Apart from in Nazareth, where people accused him of getting ideas above his station, Jesus had been feted everywhere he had been. Last week’s Gospel reading was a gory interruption to the story of the successful ministry of Jesus, but it was also a warning of what was to come. Jesus was not a Superstar Messiah and although all these good things were happening, people were not to get too attached to the miracles, because that was not who he was. He was the Suffering Messiah. He had stilled one storm, but there would be another storm coming and neither Jesus nor his disciples would come through unscathed.
The British public probably prefer their heroes to be just heroes, rather than superheroes. We tire of athletes who are persistent winners and prefer our heroes to be plucky rather than super. Globally, films that delve into the psyche of a superhero are increasingly popular. We like to know how The Hulk feels about getting angry and what it’s like for Hancock to be immortal. Above all, we like our heroes and our villains to be complex characters, because they then reflect something of how we feel about who we are. An early Christian heresy was that Jesus was in some way a superman, but if this were true he would not have been able to redeem us. It is essential for our redemption that Jesus was one with us.
Our desire is also for a happy ending and many people will have been disappointed that David Beckham did not end his career having captained the Great Britain football team. Life is not a fairy tale and it is rare for loose ends to be tied up as we might hope. The ending for Jesus was not as the disciples expected or hoped as ‘Jesus of Nazareth Superstar’ made his way through Galilee, the crowd hoping to touch him, or at least catch him with their iPhone. The story wasn’t destined to end in such glory – as Mark had already told us, ‘There’s a storm coming’.
Prayer
Our God, we thank you for the women and men whom we can admire for their achievements and their prowess in the arts, academia and as athletes. Forgive us when we ask too much of our heroes and help us to forgive them when they are shown to be merely mortal.
Our God, we thank you for the real heroes – the mortal heroes – some famous, but many unknown or even anonymous, who act bravely. We thank you for the women and men who speak out in the face of injustice – in national or international politics, or in the workplace. We pray for those whose lives or livelihoods have been placed in jeopardy through an act of bravery.
Our God, we thank you for the superheroes we find in comic books and films. We thank you for the way in which they can reflect something of who we are and that they can show us what we might be.
We thank you that Jesus knew all about what it means to be born a human being. We thank you that he was brave enough to be obedient when he knew that the storm was coming. We pray that you will give us the grace and the strength to follow in his footsteps.
Amen.
Questions
- Can a person be deemed to be a hero when they are known to have lived a flawed life? (Samson is a good biblical example of a flawed hero.)
- Is it right to expect an professional athlete to be a ‘role model’ for young people?
- Hollywood often employs British or European actors to portray the villains in its films. Could we read anything into this?
- What would you say to someone who has watched Superstar about how well this title fits Jesus?
Action
If the history of your church is known, who are its heroes? If it is possible, find out more about those who are the ‘heroes of the faith’ in your community.
Young People
- Who are your heroes?
- What makes a person hero? Does it need to be a physical act, or could it be being prepared to speak out on a particular issue? Is it ‘bravery’, if a person fails to count the cost of the action?
- If the young people have seen any of the recent superhero films, it might be interesting to explore whether the moral ambiguity of the hero is a positive factor in their success and how they feel about a villain who is ‘not all bad’ or whose life experience gives them ‘reasons to be bad’.
Simon Carver is a Baptist Minister in St Albans and takes a particular interest in film.
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